Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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The Chairman is welcome. For example, the Green Party and even the Labour Party welcomed REITs into the private rented market recently, as did the Department of Finance. As that Department gave them tax breaks, it must have welcomed them. Why would one give a tax break if one did not seek to have more of them?

I wanted to ask about rent arrears and over-holding. Ms Carroll says that disputes have changed and it is no longer the deposit, which used to be the big thing. Rent arrears and over-holding now make up a large number of the board's cases. This is probably an obvious question but it needs to be asked - why has that now changed? Why are people over-holding? It means that people stay in a house or apartment beyond the time they have been told to leave. Is it because, in the cases mentioned, the lease has ended or that people have actually gone beyond notices to quit?

Would Ms Carroll agree that the reason people are over-holding is not because they have suddenly become greedy but that the alternative is homelessness and that is why they are over-holding? If tenants do not over-hold and remain in the property, they will be on the street literally and in emergency accommodation.